This invention relates to frame mounted, prosthetic tissue heart valves, and particularly to improvements in the construction of such valves.
Frame-mounted fascia lata heart valves were used clinically by Dr. Marian I. Ionescu and Dr. D. N. Ross in 1969. Since that time hundreds of tissue valves made of autologous or homologous fascia lata, dura mater, or of heterologous pericardium have been implanted. A construction of bovine pericardial valves is reported in Frame-mounted Tissue Heart Valves: Technique of Construction, Bartels, Holden and Ionescu, Thorax (1974) 29, 51. As reported in that article, an important factor on which the long-term function of these valves depends is their construction before insertion. This invention is an improved construction over that described in the cited article.